Southampton youngster Dominic Ballard was starting to learn his trade at first team level on loan at Reading last season, when injury struck and his season was over, with Saints looking to send him out on loan again, Reading have some competition for his services.

If you pass St Mary's and see a queue, it isn't to pay over the odds for a new replica shirt, it is probably the League One clubs who are wanting to take Dom Ballard on loan.

Reading were the obvious choice with unfinished business there, but they have some competition, with the72.co.uk claiming that the Royals are joined by Bolton Wanderers, Huddersfield Town and even Wycombe Wanderers where he would be in competition with lifelong Saints supporter Sam Vokes.

This leaves a dilemma for Ballard and indeed Southampton FC, from a logistical point of view, if he moved to Reading again or even Wycombe the travelling distance isn't that far, whereas if he goes to Bolton or Huddersfield, although he will be playing in better teams, he will be 200 miles or so away from home and for a youngster who only turned 19 a few months ago, that is a daunting thought.

There will be some Saints supporters who will be demanding that the club keep him and give him a chance in the first team, but to be blunt aside from coming back from injury, his stats at Reading were ok but not brilliant.

He featured in just 10 League One games, 6 of them in the starting line up and 4 off the bench, he was also an unused sub on another occasion, he scored 3 goals in total, this was a solid start to after all what was his first real first team action, aside from two small cameo appearances when Saints were relegated from the Premier League.

The reality is that he needs to start again where he was a year ago, a spell on loan for a year and get his confidence and game going, that would be hard enough at the best of times, but coming back from a serious injury makes it even harder.

Good luck to Dom Ballard for 2024/25 season whichever club he finds himself at, I hope that this time next year I am writing about how he is now back from loan and ready to challenge for the first team at St Mary's.

Photo: Action Images

Block8 added 16:58 - Jul 29 He needs games & Selles, a good coach, will take good care of him so it would be Reading for me?
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StRipper added 16:33 - Jul 31 I'm gutted that he never got a chance to show what he can do with Saints last season, when we were scratching around for a finisher. He needs game time and I wouldn't trust Selles to boil an egg. If he can't get game time in the Championship, you'd think it would be better for Dom to be fighting for promotion with a better team?
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